- GameStop co-founder Gary Kusin told CNBC that he had been keeping an eye on the company’s stock craze.
- Kusin’s son, Ben, said he had long followed the Reddit forum credited with fueling GameStop’s rally.
- The elder Kusin told CNBC it was “a small honor” that investors turned to GameStop.
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A GameStop co-founder and his family appear to be closely following the company’s exploding stock price.
Ben Kusin, whose father, Gary, co-founded GameStop, was an active member of the Reddit forum and had encouraged and fueled the company’s spectacular rally. The younger Kusin told CNBC’s Ari Levy that his father and brother had actively watched the drama when GameStop stock skyrocketed by a whopping 2,000% in January.
“They were worlds colliding with each other,” he said.
Encouraged by members of the popular Reddit forum r / wallstreetbets, dozens of people have invested in GameStop, in part to burn off bigger investors betting against the stock, such as Citron Research’s short-seller Andrew Left. The rally, described as a populist movement, resulted in billions in losses for GameStop short sellers.
Gary Kusin, who co-founded what became GameStop in the 1980s, told CNBC it was “a bit of an honor” that investors attacked the company for its short squeeze attempt.
Read more: Hedge fund phenomenon Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital is stung by the AMC short bet that has become entangled in Reddit’s trading frenzy
“I am much more of a spectator than a competitor,” he added. “I just got some popcorn.”
The elder Kusin joins other high-profile spectators of the GameStop rally. Billionaires Elon Musk and Chamath Palihapitiya have applauded the private investors causing the short squeeze. Forward-thinking lawmakers have called for tougher stock market regulation to avoid market manipulation.
The rally marked a comeback for GameStop, the largest gaming retailer in the US, after years of slow sales. The company, threatened by increasingly downloading games rather than being bought in stores, closed 462 stores by 2020.
Still, a pandemic-induced surge in video game demand, a major investment from Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen, and the release of the PlayStation 5 fueled a resurgence of the video game store before the dramatic frenzy.
Some at GameStop have had a hard time dealing with the sudden surge. GameStop employees told Insider’s Reed Alexander that they answered investment questions and bizarre customer interactions. Employees said they had received no guidance from GameStop’s management on how to handle the influx of inquiries.